Backbencher

The title of Lecture 4 is Settlement: Convicts & Pilgrims. The main theme of this lecture was how Australia's mythistory was affected by the country being colonized by convicts. Convicts were rounded up and sent to Australia more to get them out of England than for any real desire to colonize Australia; it was convenient and far away. British ships were sent to Botany Bay filled with cargos of criminals that had been overcrowding Georgian England. It doesn't seem that a whole lot of thought was put into this new colony because the First Fleet landed with too little food and tools that were too weak to handle the tough soil. England had to send supplies to the fist colonies for a while before they were able to eke out enough to get by on their own.
We also talked briefly about how the discovery of gold affected the plans of the settlements in Australia. Some pictures related to the mining in Thomson Gorge were shown and we discussed how the practices and machines of mining affected the land.

I was most interested by our discussion of how a new sense of inarticulate patriotism is being developed by the younger generations in Australia. I agree that this might be similar to what students around here feel: that we are proud of our state/school/etc. not because of great things they've done, but just because we have grown up knowing these things and loving them for their familiarity.

I would be interested to know if origins wear off, or we just develop a new sense of where we came from.